YouTube To Add Offline Video Playback To Its Mobile Apps
Aside from background playback — the ability to turn off the screen and continue listening to content — the main drawback to YouTube on mobile is its inability to play clips without a network connection.
Keeping on top of your YouTube subscriptions can be a pain without reliable cellular connectivity, as there’s currently no way to officially download videos for offline playback. That’s set to change in November, however, with the video site announcing that it will add the long awaited feature in an update to its mobile apps.
Google posted that later this year it will scratch at least one of those itches, allowing ”people to add videos to their device to watch for a short period when an Internet connection is unavailable.”
As the YouTube team says on its blog that viewers will be able to keep offline videos “for a short period”, with AllThingsD claiming that there will be a 48-hour window.
This may seem like a minor update, but offline caching is becoming an integral part of the mobile experience, especially for those users who have limited bandwidth who want to preload music videos and other clips over WiFi before leaving on a morning commute.
No word on whether background playback will be added at a future date, but we’re pretty excited for this development.
